Journal
SEO, GEO, AI search — notes on how brands get read and found.
Guides
Checking Whether W2's WAF Is Blocking Crawlers
On a self-operated platform like W2, the WAF, bot protection, or rate limiting can block search engine and AI crawlers by accident. This article lays out the steps for checking whether crawlers are blocked using Search Console and server logs, how to tell legitimate crawlers apart, and how to decide whether to allow or refuse AI crawlers.
Connecting STORES and Google Business Profile
When a physical store is the main business, as with a salon, cafe, or classroom, and the STORES online store plays a supporting role, the store often shows up in search while the online shop doesn't. This article lays out how to link Google Business Profile and the online store to each other so the store's search performance flows into the shop.
Too Many Shopify Apps: Speed, Search, and AI Citations
Shopify lets you add features through apps, but every app adds JavaScript to your pages, slowing them down and degrading Core Web Vitals. This article covers how slower pages affect search and AI citations, how to measure each app's impact, the criteria for removing, replacing, or lazy-loading apps, and cleaning up code left behind after removal.
Japanese ASP Cart to Shopify: Carrying Over URLs and Structured Data
Migrating to Shopify from makeshop, Color Me Shop, futureshop, or similar always changes the shape of your URLs. To avoid losing search performance in the move, this article walks through the URL mapping table, redirect design, carrying over structured data, and the metrics to watch before and after, in the order of the migration timeline.
SEO for Pages Created by Shopify's Japan-Specific Apps
Running Shopify in Japan means relying on Japan-specific apps for noshi (gift wrapping), delivery date and time selection, and convenience store pickup. Whether to index or exclude the pages and parameterized URLs these apps create is a judgment call. This article covers the typical output of each app type, the indexing decision, and how to tell AI search that you offer Japan-specific services.
Shopify Cross-Border hreflang and Japanese/English Pages
When you build Japanese and English pages with Shopify Markets, the same product ends up with multiple language URLs. Without hreflang to tell search engines how the languages correspond, the Japanese page can appear in English-language searches, or the pages can be judged duplicates. This article covers what Shopify outputs automatically, how to choose a URL structure (subfolder, subdomain, or separate domain), and the problems caused by missing translations.
Shopify Collection and Tag Duplicate URLs and Crawling
On Shopify, the same product opens at both a collection-path URL and a standalone URL. Because the canonical points to the standalone URL, duplicate indexing is prevented, but crawl budget is still consumed. This article covers the scope of the impact, including tag pages and filter URLs, and three ways to handle them.
Structuring Online and In-Store Inventory for Search and AI
For search engines and AI to read online and in-store inventory correctly, two conditions apply: separate the stock state by channel, and keep the on-screen display and the structured data showing the same value. This article covers how inventory affects AI recommendations, a case of hidden out-of-stock text, per-channel representation, and the connection to store information.
makeshop: Fixing Double Structured Data Output
makeshop outputs basic structured data as standard. Adding your own JSON-LD in Creator Mode on top of it outputs the same type twice and triggers errors in the Rich Results Test. This article covers how to find double output, how to decide which one to keep, and which types are safe to add.
Crawl Budget and Index Gaps at Tens of Thousands of Products
On a marketplace with more than tens of thousands of products, the crawler's processing limit becomes the direct cause of index gaps. Slow indexing of new products starts here. Sitemap splitting and lastmod, blocking low-value URLs, prioritizing through internal links, and observation in bot logs: this article explains how to run these four as a set.
futureshop-Linked WordPress Posts Missing from the Sitemap
futureshop's XML sitemap covers pages created in the admin panel. Posts written through the WordPress integration aren't included. This article explains why those posts are slow to be discovered and how to register the WordPress sitemap. It also covers internal linking and structured data so the shop and blog are treated as one site.
futureshop Structured Data: What to Add for AI Search
The structured data futureshop outputs automatically covers the basics of telling search engines about a product. To be cited by AI search, you also need Article and breadcrumb markup that matches the visible text, FAQs, and consistency in stock and options. This article covers how to check the scope of the automatic output and what to add.
futureshop Multi-Group Duplicate URLs and canonical
When one product is registered in several futureshop groups, the same product can end up with multiple group-based URLs. This article explains how duplicate URLs split search performance and how to check whether it's happening in your shop. It also covers where canonical should point and the rules for group design.
futureshop: Fixing Heading Structure in commerce creator
futureshop's commerce creator is a tool that builds pages by stacking parts. Even when the page looks tidy, HTML headings (h1 to h3) tend to go missing or skip levels. AI search and search engines read a page through its headings, so this breakage is a reason pages don't get cited. This article covers how to spot the breakage, how to fix it part by part, and operating rules.
ecforce: Winning Organic Search and AI Citations on an Ad-LP-Centered Site
Ad landing pages don't get cited by AI search. For a D2C brand running on ecforce to win organic search and AI citations, it needs pages that answer questions placed next to the LPs, with a structure that leads to the product. This article covers the six axes of questions, the division of roles between LPs and content, and how to increase mentions elsewhere on the web.
ecforce: Should Ad Landing Pages Be noindex
When you mass-produce ad landing pages on ecforce, search engines see the main product page plus a whole series of LPs for the same product. The choice is whether to noindex all of them, keep just one, or point them at the main page with canonical. This article sorts out the decision by LP type, where to set it, and how to do so without affecting ad measurement.
ecbeing: SEO and AI Search Requirements to Write into the RFP
With a large package like ecbeing, changing a requirement you left out of the RFP after the build is hard. This article covers six areas, URL design, rendering method, metadata management, structured data, bot access control, and log provision, in order of how hard they are to change later, with requirement wording you can paste into the RFP.
EC-CUBE: The SEO and AI Search Requirements Sheet to Hand Your Agency
EC-CUBE sites are usually built by an agency, which makes SEO and AI search requirements items that don't get in unless you say so. This article gives you a ready-to-use requirements table to hand over before the build, covering six areas: URLs, metadata, structured data, sitemaps, speed, and bot handling.
Three Options for an EC-CUBE 4 XML Sitemap
The EC-CUBE 4 series doesn't generate an XML sitemap by default. This article compares three options (a plugin, a custom build generated by a command or controller, and generation with an external tool) on update tracking, splitting, lastmod, and operational load. It also covers how to choose based on product count and development capacity.
SEO Assets Lost in an EC-CUBE 2 to 4 Migration
Migrating from EC-CUBE 2 to 4 is not a simple version upgrade. It is a site move in which URL structure, templates, and plugins all change. This article covers the four assets most easily lost in migration (URLs, metadata, structured data, and sitemap), the steps to carry each one over, and the metrics to check afterward.
Adding Structured Data in Color Me Shop Templates
Color Me Shop lets you edit HTML/CSS templates, so you can add structured data yourself. Duplicating what the platform already outputs by default backfires, though. This article covers checking the default output, which types are safe to add, how to fill values dynamically with template variables, and what not to do.
How to Submit a Color Me Shop Sitemap
A Color Me Shop sitemap starts with confirming where it lives and what it contains. This article walks through submitting it to Search Console and the metrics to watch afterward. It also covers how free pages and custom domains relate to the sitemap.
Content SEO with Color Me Shop Free Pages
On Color Me Shop, the place to write buying guides and how-to articles is the free page. It becomes the entry point for people arriving from searches other than your product names, and from AI search. This article covers article types, page structure, links to product pages, and the limits of managing them.
B-Cart: noindex Design for Members-Only URLs
When B-Cart members-only URLs show up in search, the worry is whether customer-specific prices are exposed too. But noindex everything and the entry point for new customers disappears as well. This article lays out login protection, index exclusion, and how to keep public pages.
B-Cart: What to Publish When Public Pages Are Thin
On B2B ecommerce like B-Cart, most information sits behind member login. Trade terms can stay closed. This article lays out the thinking behind publishing specs, uses, buying guides, and FAQs, and how to build pages that answer B2B purchasing staff.
BASE: Keeping Search Performance Through a Custom Domain Switch
When you move a BASE shop from the shared domain to a custom domain, every URL changes. Unless the old URLs redirect to the new ones and the new URLs are declared canonical, your existing search performance does not carry over. This article walks through the preparation before the switch, the checks on the day, and what to watch in the two weeks after.
ecbeing: URL and Redirect Design for a Large-Scale Renewal
In a renewal of a large site like one built on ecbeing, tens of thousands of URLs change at once. Redirecting all of them by hand isn't realistic. You combine rule-based conversion with individual handling of exceptions. This article walks through the URL inventory, rule design, exception extraction, cutover-day steps, and post-migration monitoring in order.
Why AI Search Ignores Most Web Content And How to Fix It
New research shows most pages never get cited by AI search—even from high-authority sites. Learn what determines AI visibility and how to close the gap.